Portsmouth v Posh | Match Preview

Posh make the trip to Fratton Park this evening for the Checkatrade Trophy quarter-final.

Peterborough United head to Fratton Park this evening to face fellow Sky Bet League One side Portsmouth in the quarter-finals of the Checkatrade Trophy (7pm) with both sides just a couple of victories away from an appearance at Wembley Stadium.

It is the toughest test that Posh could have received in the competition with Pompey still leading the way in League One after a superb first half of the campaign. They have had a bit of a wobble of late, but are still in a commanding position in the table.

TEAM NEWS

Posh boss Steve Evans will be without Kyle Dempsey and Ben White due to the fact they have played in the competition before for their parent clubs. The Posh boss has confirmed he will make changes to his starting XI following the 4-0 defeat to Luton Town on Saturday.

Pompey have no new injury concerns, although January signings Andy Cannon and Bryn Morris are both cup-tied. Luke McGee, Oli Hawkins and Nathan Thompson are injured so Academy graduates Matt Casey and Dan Smith are expected to be involved.

FROM THE GAFFER

“We said before the weekend that the league is our priority. I made that clear to the chairman after the win at Chelsea. We have players who need games and we will utilise the squad for this fixture against Portsmouth. It will be a tough test, but we want to progress in this competition. We are not far away from the final, so we will do everything we can to win the game,” Evans said.

FROM THE OPPOSITION

“We realise that we’ve got a busy run of games – not just with QPR on Saturday, but then Luton and Doncaster next week in the league. As a squad we’ve got to be capable of dealing with that and we wouldn’t expect all our players to be involved in five games in 15 days. Peterborough have got quite a deep squad, although I’m sure they’ll also have one eye on facing Charlton at the weekend.

“But, like us, they’ll desperately want to win on the night – especially as we’re getting close to Wembley now. We’ve done well to get through a number of stages in this competition – and it’s been good to us so far. There have been some positive performances and we want to see that continue.

“Peterborough are generally a force in League One every season and finished just outside of the play-offs last time. They’re ahead of that now and definitely have the ability to finish in the top six – both in terms of the players and the manager,” Portsmouth boss Kenny Jackett said.